An intense, unmatched heat spread from the ground, engulfing his entire body. ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by novᴇlfire.net
Li Rui had intended to sit down and concentrate on regulating his breath, but only moments after he settled down, he felt a scorching heat from beneath him. Distracted, he forcefully circulated his Dark Skill.
Yue Jinghua hid in the shadows and cracked a sinister smile.
She secretly summoned several Giant Winged Mosquito Kings, but her target was not the seated Li Rui; instead, it was the unassuming Molten Python perched ten steps away from him.
Several Giant Winged Mosquito Kings silently approached the coiled, motionless Molten Python and fiercely plunged in.
The Molten Python, which had been lying still, indistinguishable from the rocks, was instantly roused to alertness.
After a successful strike, the Giant Winged Mosquito Kings swiftly retreated without attracting anyone’s notice.
The awakened Molten Python, enraged, scanned its surroundings and immediately set its eyes on Li Rui, who was only a few steps away.
Furious, the Molten Python uncoiled, launching itself like a javelin.
Upon hearing the unusual sound of rushing wind, three Five-star Mercenaries suddenly opened their eyes.
Yue Jinghua noticed that the first to open their eyes was the Ascetic Monk-like Dark Practitioner, followed by a middle-aged man, with Li Rui being the slowest.
Seeing the Molten Python falling from the sky, a trace of surprise flashed in the eyes of the three Five-star Mercenaries.
All along the way, they hadn’t detected any Dark Beasts, so where did this Molten Python come from?
"Beast," Li Rui, truly a Five-star Mercenary, reacted swiftly even though the Molten Python came swiftly and unexpectedly, conjuring his Protective Profound Armor in an instant.
He slashed horizontally with both palms, instantly bisecting the Molten Python into two halves.
"Not good," just as Li Rui was internally celebrating, the Ascetic Monk-like Five-star Mercenary shouted, "Li Rui, do not engage! Retreat immediately."
A Molten Python, once still is trivial, but once it moves, it is truly formidable.
The Molten Python that was just slain let out a roar that awakened all the Molten Pythons in the area.
These Molten Pythons were likely brought in by Mo Kang when he built the Dragon Palace a thousand years ago.
Li Rui felt nothing strange when he killed the Molten Python, only realizing the severity of the situation as more and more pythons filled the area.
Yue Jinghua saw more and more Molten Pythons appear beneath her feet and around her; each one as thick as an arm, flicking out crimson tongues, and their breaths, emitting intense heat, as if boiling the air in the vicinity.
The distant Dragon Court seemed impossibly far away, and retreating became the only path to survival.
Just as the three were about to retreat, they saw a black cloud drifting towards them.
Upon closer inspection, that was no black cloud, but a dense swarm of Giant Winged Blood Mosquitoes, numbering in the hundreds.
This swarm of blood mosquitoes, naturally, was summoned by Yue Jinghua, bred in the Dark Hell.
Each blood mosquito was as big as a bat, its powerful wings fluttering slightly, propelling it half a meter forward. Their proboscises were as solid as molten iron, piercing through anything in their path.
"Damn it, I refuse to believe this is happening to me," Li Rui, ever since becoming a Five-star Mercenary, had never encountered such a situation. He was adept at close combat and faced the dense swarm of giant-winged mosquitoes and molten pythons head-on.
His iron fists swung like hammers, whirling through the sky, pounding down like a torrential rain directly onto the molten pythons and blood mosquitoes that came close.
Seeing as there was no way to break through, the remaining two Five-star Mercenaries had no choice but to steel themselves.
The fifty-something mercenary’s body lit up with a bright Dark Light, and suddenly there was a human-high Dark Energy Shield formed by condensed Dark Energy around him, while a long spear appeared in his hand.
With the movement of the fifty-something mercenary, the shield on his body floated like a halo of light, occasionally blocking the close-range attacks, and the spear in his hand, swift as a spiritual snake, struck with precision. Soon, the molten pythons beside him were beaten into a mess, piling up into small mountains of corpses.
From beginning to end, the ascetic monk dressed in a white robe and standing barefoot on the side remained motionless, mumbling incantations.
When Ran Wu entered the Dragon Palace, he wore a white cotton robe, and now, his white robe was covered with seal script-like mystical Dark Energy, completely sealing him off.
If Yue Jinghua looked closely, she would notice that as the ascetic monk’s incantations progressed, the attacks by the molten pythons and the Giant Winged Mosquito King became less frequent. In the end, both types of Dark Beasts nearly ignored the third mercenary on the Fiery Fire Path.
The Five-star Mercenary disguised as an ascetic monk appeared to be proficient in special Dark Skills similar to "Concealment" that could hide one’s aura.
However, his doing so inadvertently increased the combat pressure on the other two.
The fifty-something mercenary was still somewhat better off, having the Floating Light Dark Shield to protect him, with all the assaulting Dark Beasts being repelled by the shield.
"Ran Wu, you bald monk, once I leave the Sky Dragon Palace, you’ll be the first one I won’t spare," Luo Rui was the weakest among the three and had received special attention from Yue Jinghua, becoming the prime target of the Giant Winged Mosquito King. Seeing that among the three of them, the mercenary monk Ran Wu was unharmed, he was already livid with rage and cursed incessantly.
The combat abilities of the two Five-star Mercenaries are indeed not to be underestimated. After thirty minutes of targeted killing, the molten pythons in this area had been nearly completely cleared.
Only the Giant Winged Mosquito King in the sky was still relentlessly pursuing them.
Soon, the fifty-something mercenary also realized that despite the constant shooting down of the giant-winged mosquitoes,
"Aow aow, these idiots, the true danger of molten pythons is just beginning," Gold Eater Worm, watching the battle from the sidelines, let out a schadenfreude-filled howl.
But Yue Jinghua’s gaze was entirely fixated on the ascetic monk.
Seemingly inconspicuous, the ascetic monk was actually the most feared amongst the three.
Just as Gold Eater Worm’s words fell, the mountain-like pile of molten python corpses on the ground began to transform.
Dead molten python corpses that were stiff began to twitch as if returning to life.
Their broken bodies melted like lead, blood and flesh merged, making cracking and popping sounds.
Molten pythons, no thicker than an arm, fused in the continuous popping noise, transforming into a three-meter-tall giant python.
Its body became as big as a barrel, like a red-hot iron brand, emitting an exceptionally scorching lava aura, and its lantern-sized eyes maliciously scanned the three people.
Faced with such a monstrous beast, even the ascetic monk Ran Ye’s eyelids twitched, and Li Rui turned pale with fright.
"Hiss hiss," the Molten Boa King spat out a letter, spewing out lava-like toxic volcanic fire, and the mountain wall, as if hit by a cannonball, immediately exploded, creating a crater.
The Molten Python Corpse King, a fusion of thousands of molten python corpses into a corpse snake, spits out lava with corpse poison in its breath. Merely touching a wound, it could decay flesh and bones, reducing a living person to a pool of corpse liquid."